About Iranian Food

This Week’s Film: The Stoning of Soraya M.

Cuisine: Iranian

Iranian food features a rich variety of spices and ingredients. The most common main ingredients include lamb, chicken, and fish. Dairy products such as eggs, yogurt, and goat cheese are important elements of Iranian cuisine, as are starchy ingredients such as lentils, beans, chickpeas, potatoes, rice.

Indigenous vegetables include peppers, eggplants, spinach, grape leaves, tomatoes, okra, carrots, and onions. Fruits such as lemons, limes, oranges, apples, cherries, raisins, dates, pomegranates are used in both sweet and savory dishes, as are nuts such as almonds, walnuts, and pistachios.

Herbs include parsley, coriander, mint, dill, and garlic; and spices such as black pepper, turmeric, fenugreek, saffron, sumac, cardamom, and cinnamon give Iranian cuisine its rich flavors.

Preparation techniques include grilled meat kebabs, stuffed vegetables called dolmeh, khoresht stews served with various rice dishes called polow, pickled vegetables called torshi, and a tempting variety of pastries and other sweets.

My Iranian recipe will be posted at the end of the week along with my film review of The Stoning of Soraya M.